Conflict Actors in Motion: Refugees, Rebels and Ethnic Groups

Although refugees are victims of conflict and forced to leave their homes, they can cause negative externalities in asylum states, such as a disturbed ethnic balance and the diffusion of rebel networks. In order to avoid further aggravations of humanitarian crises, it is crucial to understand and control these mechanisms. This dissertation analyzes the mechanisms of how refugees trigger conflict and thereby contributes to the knowledge of conflict diffusion. The existing conflict literature has found a statistically significant correlation between civil conflict diffusion and refugees, but it fails to explain how refugees influence conflict. In contrast to previous research, the new theoretical approach to refugee‐related conflict introduced in this dissertation considers ethno‐nationalist preferences of refugee flows and asylum countries. Both transnational ethnic groups and refugee movements have been identified as important actors contributing to civil conflict spread, but the systematic effect of the ethnicity of refugees has so far been ignored. Therefore, I introduce a new quantitative dataset on the ethnicity of refugees with global coverage. The three quantitative chapters of this dissertation analyze the direction of refugee movements, the relationship between refugees and the population in the receiving state and the relationship between refugees and insurgent groups. Finally, the quantitative findings are complemented with qualitative evidence from the Kosovo refugee crisis in 1999.

@phdthesis{conflict-actors-in-motion,
title = {Conflict Actors in Motion: Refugees, Rebels and Ethnic Groups},
author = {R\"uegger, Seraina},
school = {ETH Zurich},
type = {{PhD} dissertation},
doi = {10.3929/ethz-a-010053729},
url = {http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/view/eth:7923},
year = {2013},
abstract = {Although refugees are victims of conflict and forced to leave their homes, they can cause negative externalities in asylum states, such as a disturbed ethnic balance and the diffusion of rebel networks. In order to avoid further aggravations of humanitarian crises, it is crucial to understand and control these mechanisms. This dissertation analyzes the mechanisms of how refugees trigger conflict and thereby contributes to the knowledge of conflict diffusion. The existing conflict literature has found a statistically significant correlation between civil conflict diffusion and refugees, but it fails to explain how refugees influence conflict. In contrast to previous research, the new theoretical approach to refugee-related conflict introduced in this dissertation considers ethno-nationalist preferences of refugee flows and asylum countries. Both transnational ethnic groups and refugee movements have been identified as important actors contributing to civil conflict spread, but the systematic effect of the ethnicity of refugees has so far been ignored. Therefore, I introduce a new quantitative dataset on the ethnicity of refugees with global coverage. The three quantitative chapters of this dissertation analyze the direction of refugee movements, the relationship between refugees and the population in the receiving state and the relationship between refugees and insurgent groups. Finally, the quantitative findings are complemented with qualitative evidence from the Kosovo refugee crisis in 1999.}
}